L. Ron Hubbard, Dianetics, and Scientology

If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way could be to start his own religion. - L. Ronald Hubbard, modified.

Lafayette Ron Hubbard (1911-86) authored the body of works that make up Scientology doctrine. Official Scientology biographies present him as "larger than life, attracted to people, liked by people, dynamic, charismatic and immensely capable in two dozen fields". Privately he wrote entries in his notebook like "All men are your slaves." He was prone to self-aggrandizement and exaggeration too.

Things have a start. He began experimenting with a "science" on his friends. He would have them lie on a couch, close their eyes, and follow his commands. In May 1950 he published an article on Dianetics, outlining the basics of it. Shortly afterward, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health became a best seller.

Early in the book, Hubbard introduced what he called the "clear." Dianetically, the optimum individual is called the "clear", the goal of Dianetic therapy.

A clear can be tested for any and all psychoses, neuroses, compulsions and repressions (all aberrations) and can be examined for any self-generated diseases referred to as psychosomatic ills. These tests confirm the clear to be entirely without such ills or aberrations.

The state of Clear, Hubbard promised, was a state of mind never before achieved by man. Dianetic therapy was an amalgam of Freudian analysis; a brand of semantics where one tries to differentiate between subconscious experiences; and the psychoanalytic theory of Nandor Fodor, where the influence of prenatal experiences is explored.

According to Hubbard, all the events of our lives are stored in the mind as "mental image pictures," or memories. However, modern psychology teaches, rather, that the long-term memory favours meanings above pictures.

Hubbard taught a method to get into infamous memories and become clear of them. The idea of an inexpensive and easy way to administer lay psychotherapy caught on quickly. Hubbard promised that the state of "Clear" was attainable to anyone who successfully completed enough Dianetic auditing to eradicate the troublesome "reactive mind." But this promise was firmly disproved in August of 1950, in an auditorium in Los Angeles when a nervous young woman appeared with Hubbard on stage and the audience began to ask her questions she didn't know the answers to, although Hubbard had introduced her as a "Clear".

The Hubbard Dianetics Research Foundation was reborn in Wichita, but in February of 1952 the Wichita Foundation was forced to file for bankruptcy. Hubbard then opened the Hubbard College on the other side of Wichita. It remained open for only six weeks, and provided Hubbard with a forum where he could announce a completely new development. This new development was called "Scientology," from the Latin word "scire", to know; and the Greek word "logos", speech, word, reason, wisdom, controlling principle. Scientology, freely rendered as "knowledge teachings", would now replace the study and practice of Dianetics, for a Don Purcell now owned all the Dianetics copyrights.

Hubbard explained that Scientology addressed the soul. Hubbard also introduced at the same time the "E-meter," short for electropsychometer. This small boxlike instrument is actually a galvanic skin response monitor which registers changes in skin conductivity caused by emotional upset, according to Scientology. The face of the E-meter contains a dial where a needle registers "rises" and "falls" of emotional "charge." Various knobs alter the sensitivity of the needle reactions. To the box are connected two leads attached to small soup or juice cans which the preclear holds in his hands. The E-meter helps the "auditor" probe the preclear's subconscious mind, looking for areas of emotional charge to be explored in auditing. Scientologists believe that auditing, with the help of the E-meter, nicely confirms the existence of past lives.

Somewhere after the fall of 1952 Hubbard was offering both a Bachelors and a Doctors degree in Scientology. Hubbard soon saw that Scientology as a church would have legal protection and tax advantages. He knew that as a church his organization would be afforded protections that otherwise would not exist. Accordingly, in December of 1953, Hubbard incorporated the Church of Scientology, and the Church of American Science. In its Articles of Incorporation, the Church of American Science included a purpose in its original charter:

To resolve the travail and difficulties of members of congregations, as they may appertain to the spirit.

Listed in the Creed of this church are also "That Man has a god-given right to his own life."

The beginning of 1954 saw the birth of the first actual Scientology "church," the Church of Scientology of California, and Hubbard registered the umbrella organization, the Hubbard Association of Scientology International, to oversee all of his new "churches." Now he had churches but needed "ministers, so Hubbard created the Scientology minister's course that made fit for conducting weddings, christenings, and funerals. And in 1955, the "Founding Church of Scientology" in Washington, D.C. became the new world headquarters of Scientology.

Despite the protection the church status yielded, Hubbard was troubled by encounters with government agencies. He began to issue policies railing against the "enemies" of Scientology. "Don't ever defend, always attack," was one of them.

In 1959 he surprised American followers with buying a large Georgian manor in East Grinstead, England. The place was to become the new international headquarters of Scientology. The Hubbard family lived in style there. In the spring of 1961 Hubbard created on paper the precursor of his private intelligence agency.

In 1963, in Australia, a Board of Inquiry that was carried out by one man, Kevin Anderson, published his findings in a report. Anderson stated that Scientology's practice was a threat to the Australian community (etc.). As a result of the Anderson Report, the Victoria Parliament banned the practice and teaching of Scientology in that province. The resourceful Scientologists responded by simply changing the name of the Victoria church to "Church of the New Faith," and continued to teach and practice Scientology.

Hubbard organised private investigators who would compile dossiers on each of the "enemies" of Scientology, compiling a dossier on every psychiatrist in England. This was to become a private intelligence organization designed to "deal with any threats to Scientology."

In England, the police began to interrogate Scientologists as they arrived at St. Hill. Eventually the British succeeded in using the Aliens Act to keep Scientologists out of the country - but the action was in turn easily circumvented by the Scientologists who would simply list other reasons for their visit to the country.

Only few nowadays have what it takes to strike back at the states in several countries as well as Scientology. You may want to know more of what happened, and get into some of Hubbard's lovely teachings: [LINK]

Answer the Questions

• Is the government and bureaucracy always right?
• Is it wise to judge the whole (of Scientology) by a flaw or three?
• Is is thoughtless to throw out a baby with the bath water?
• There is reason enough to point out that Jesus was executed as a blashpheming criminal in his day, and his church (tense sect) was persecuted violently too.
• Is the future of our planet in good hands?

There is reason to stop asking simple yes-no questions. Replace them with "by degree" question: "To what degree is . . . ?". You can often use a scale ranging from 1 through 6 for it. The practice can improve thinking.

Some Hubbard Quotations

Don't ever try to stop truth.

When an individual can imagine freely . . . he can communicate freely.

Do not bear false witness.

The way to happiness . . . loving and the helping of children from babyhood to the brink of adult life.

Man . . . ordinarily has high analytical ability.

Never discuss Scientology with the critic. Just discuss his or her crimes, known and unknown.

The evolution of knowledge is toward simplicity.

The most virgin territory there is, is the future.